Monster Hunter Now – imagine running into this thing on your way to the shops (pic: Capcom)



Capcom has teamed up with the Pokémon GO studio to launch a Monster Hunter alternative, with beta tests starting from next week.



If you’ve ever looked at Pokémon GO and wished, instead of catching pokémon, it was all about hunting and slaying giant dragons and other beasts from Capcom’s Monster Hunter series, then you’ll be happy to hear that your wish has come true.



Today, Capcom announced Monster Hunter Now, its own AR mobile game, and it just so happens to be in development at Niantic, the studio responsible for Pokémon GO.



Not only that, it’ll be launching in just five months in September, and Niantic and Capcom are giving players the chance to take part in closed beta tests.



As you can probably guess, Monster Hunter Now functions very similarly to Pokémon GO. Although there’s obviously a greater emphasis on combat; unlike wild pokémon in Pokémon GO, Monster Hunter Now’s creatures fight back, and you’ll need to dodge their attacks and retaliate with your weapon of choice.



You’ll be able to battle monsters either on your own or with friends, but you’ll always have a Palico partner (the little cat creatures from Monster Hunter) to accompany you as you explore.



One neat difference is that if you come across a monster but don’t fancy fighting it straight away, you can use a paintball item to tag it, allowing you to take it back home and hunt it there. Your Palico can even automatically tag any monsters you walk past for you.



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Presumably, the game will be free-to-play with microtransactions like Pokémon GO, but Niantic and Capcom haven’t explicitly confirmed this yet so it’s unclear how the game’s monetisation will work.



Capcom also didn’t say whether Monster Hunter Now will have any sort of connectivity with other games like Monster Hunter Rise, like how Pokémon GO lets you transfer caught pokémon to the console games.



If you’d like to take part in the beta tests, you can sign up via the official website . The tests will start from April 25 next week though Niantic warns that they’ll be limited to roughly 10,000 participants.



Monster Hunter Now launches for iOS and Android in September 2023.









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